Discernment of Spirits in the High Middle Ages: The
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DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A BIBLICAL CONCEPT INTO AN INQUISITORIAL TECHNIQUE by Savannah Rhodes, B.A. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in History May 2019 Committee Members: Elizabeth Makowski, Chair Kenneth Margerison Leah Renold COPYRIGHT by Savannah Rhodes 2019 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Savannah Rhodes, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Makowski first and foremost, for her support, dedication, ability to always have a solution, and bottomless well of patience these past four years. This thesis would not have happened without her. I would also like to thank Dr. Kenneth Margersion for seven years of enjoyable coursework and constant guidance, and allowing me to regularly pursue the strangest topics of study. Many thanks also go to Dr. Leah Renold for her willingness to join my committee at the last minute and assist with a topic well out of her usual specialization- and reminding me to be more lenient towards myself. I would also like to thank Dr. Bryan Glass, Dr. Jim Selcraig, and Dr. Dwight Watson for being amazing professors to work for during my first year attempting to figure out graduate school. I also owe Dr. Pierre Cagniart a considerable amount of thanks for constantly brightening my days with fascinating history and philosophy discussions, from Plato to Caligula. Dr. Mary Brennan deserves a very big thank you for her kindness and support these past seven years as well. You were not only an awesome professor but an awesome boss. I cannot give enough thanks to the History Department at Texas State University in general for giving me a welcoming home the past eight years of my life. Lastly, many thanks go to Reagan and Reuben Castillo for years of babysitting a caffeinated, high-strung mess of a grad student. Thank you both so much. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv CHAPTER I. HERESY, INQUISITION, AND THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS ..............1 Languedoc and the Development of Defined Heresy ..................................2 The Beginnings of the Inquisition................................................................7 Beguines, Female Spiritualists, and the Discernment of Spirits ................11 Divine or Diabolical? .................................................................................13 The Avignon Papacy and the Discernment of Spirits ................................16 Theologians Address the Discernment of Spirits .......................................20 Discernment of Spirits and the Complexities of Inquisition ......................25 II. 14TH CENTURY CASE STUDIES: EVOLUTION OF THE TECHNIQUE ...29 The Beguines and Marguerite Porete .........................................................29 Marguerite Porete and the Discernment Method .......................................39 Ermine de Reims and her Visions ..............................................................42 Ermine de Reims and Jean Gerson ............................................................49 Onward to the 15th Century .......................................................................52 III. 15TH CENTURY: THE CASE OF JOAN OF ARC: DEVELOPED METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................54 Joan of Arc in De quadam puella ..............................................................54 The Trial of Joan of Arc.............................................................................59 Joan of Arc Trial Deliberations..................................................................68 The Trial of Joan of Arc and Discernment ................................................75 Conclusion .................................................................................................79 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................82 v I:HERESY, INQUISITION, AND THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS The name inquisition tends to conjure an image of stern churchmen subjecting tortures upon the laypeople of medieval Europe, uncaring in their judgements and zealous in their administering of punishments. Reality, however, was quite different, as many inquisitors, although incredibly pious and zealous in their Christian faith, sought not to burn all heretics at the stake and thoroughly torture the masses. Instead, they found themselves grappling with beliefs and ideas that questioned the very fundaments of their own Christian doctrines and had to learn to navigate the convoluted, tumultuous period of the High Middle Ages while developing new legal and ecclesiastical techniques for maintaining the Christian faith in Europe. The Discernment of Spirits was one such technique, with its basis in biblical ideas as old as St. Paul; it however soon found new use as an inquisitorial tool. Originally a method used by Christians to determine whether ideas, people, beliefs, and influences they were exposed to were in line with their faith, the technique took on new use under the inquisition. The early Christian saints defined discernment as a careful individual testing of the claims of new prophets, to ensure that one remained under the growing authority of the early Church. One needed to beware the possibility of false prophets, of the influences of evil spirits, and carefully interpret claims in accord with scripture. However, despite calling for the laity to practice discernment, no formal instructions were provided by men such as St. Paul. With the development of the inquisition in the High Middle Ages though, discernment changed. What had once been a voluntary personal expression of faith now became a forced method of possible 1 persecution.1 The development and application of the Discernment of Spirits demonstrated the difficulties inquisitors faced when trying to sort matters of faith with logic, as well as how common sentiments and attitudes of the time could affect such efforts. Although the inquisition developed many techniques for combatting heresy, the Discernment of Spirits found increasing use throughout the High Middle Ages due to the growing number of self-proclaimed mystics, many of whom did not discern their own spirits. Furthermore, the laity seemed to practice personal discernment less and less, and bought into the claims of new prophets, alarming the Church. While inquisitors understood new prophets were within the realm of possibility, they also knew false prophets were just as likely, and thus to protect the laity, the spirits of these prophets needed to be discerned. This chapter seeks to demonstrate the development of the inquisition by exploring the causes for its creation, and how the Discernment of Spirits evolved into an inquisitorial method for combating heresy. Languedoc and the Development of Defined Heresy First, while it is common to imagine the inquisition as an official, structured organization, in reality this was not the case. Mainly born from growing problems with alternative unsanctioned beliefs common amongst the populace, the inquisition started as a means for theologians to combat heresies throughout Europe. While it would eventually gain a bit more structure upon being outsourced to several monastic orders, it was never an official, fully organized arm of the Church. Nevertheless, this did not prevent 1 Harvey D. Egan, Forward to Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living, by Timothy M. Gallagher, (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2005), 19-27; Nancy Caciola, Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003), 3-5. 2 theologians and monastic inquisitors from attempting to codify, organize, and commit to writing their practices and experiences, in the hopes of aiding their future battles against heresy.2 However, for there to be an inquisition, there needed to be heresy. While early on in the Middle Ages the Church felt that heresy was best combated with oral persuasion, this mentality eventually changed. Due to the common illiteracy of the laypeople at the time the Church recognized that false and misguided beliefs, at least by their doctrinal standards, were normal. Thus, the concern over heresy was less about mistaken beliefs, and more about the individual who refused to rescind such beliefs, or actively promoted them, despite warnings, imprisonment, or other punishment from the Church. And for the social elite and governments, simply allowing heresy to occur unchallenged made one a heretic as well. Such was the case in the French province of Languedoc, which in many ways was the area responsible for the formation of the inquisition and by extension, the development and use of the technique of Discernment of Spirits.3 Not until the High Middle Ages though did heresy